Nikkan Sports reports that the reason why talks with the Softbank Hawks' broke down was because of their new salary assessment system. Sugiuchi was reportedly offered two deals: a four-year deal worth 1.6B yen and a one-year deal worth 450M yen. Of the two, he was most interested in the one-year deal, but ultimately decided not to accept it because he did not agree with the team's salary assessment system (he was pushing for a change).

Team director Itaru Kobayashiplans on speaking to team owner Masayoshi Son and team president Kazuhiko Kasai for suggestions on what to do next.